Abraham Lincoln once said: “A house divided by itself cannot stand.”

For the past 20 years our country has been divided and it is time we come together as a people.

My children have all grown up in the past 20 years with all of the presidents being a Bush or a Clinton. Given this, it is pretty easy to understand young people’s apathy for the status quo. They want change.

The legacy for both Bush presidencies has been wars, massive deficits, tax cuts for the corporations and the wealthy, and recessions. The endless wars in the Middle East are based on lies, falsified intelligence data and bogus innuendo. The costs of these endless wars are very damaging to our economy and our status as a trusted world leader.

Hillary Clinton and John McCain foolishly supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Clinton and McCain continued to support the war even after it was a proven fact that intelligence data was falsified. For Sen. Clinton, it was calculated political posturing that has been a disaster.

More than 4,000 of our troops have died in Iraq and Afghanistan and tens of thousands have been wounded. Devastating figures, but imagine untold thousands more coming home permanently scarred with mental disabilities.

John McCain was recently quoted as saying that we need to leave our troops in Iraq for 100 years. These are the types of foolish comments that divides our country and emboldens our enemies.

Our economy has suffered terribly because of George W. Bush’s unjust and misleading wars of aggression.

Fortunately for America, it seems that once in a generation a leader will emerge who gives hope to people of all ages, races, and economic background. A leader arises to unite all people to participate in the American dream. I strongly believe that leader for our times is Barack Obama.

He has opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. Obama will bring our troops home and begin rebuilding our fractured economy. He will give hope to the helpless by establishing a universal health care program for every American.

If you still believe in the American dream as I do, I urge you to join me and vote for Barack Obama.

STAN PERRY

Chillicothe